This invention relates to thermometer sheath packages and more particularly to a thermometer sheath package designed for use with electronic thermometers having varying shapes.
A thermometer sheath package, invented by the inventor of this invention, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,558. This prior sheath package invention was improved with improvement inventions disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,732,975, 4,136,776 and 4,165,000. As disclosed in these patents, these prior sheath packages comprise two inner flexible strips of thermoplastic material, which are sandwiched between two paper cover strips having their inner surfaces coated with thermoplastic material. The two inner strips and the outer cover strips are all sealed together along a seal line in the form of a sheath shaped to fit over a clinical thermometer. The two inner strips are sealed together along the seal line in a tear seal and this tear seal defines the thermometer sheath. The two outer cover strips are sealed to the inner strips along the seal line in peelable seals. The cover strips are also sealed to the inner strips over broad flat seal areas at the mouth of the sheath and one of the cover strips is sealed to the adjacent inner strip outside the toe of the sheath in a broad flat seal. To use a sheath, thermometer is inserted into the open mouth of the sheath between the two cover strips and then the cover strips are peeled away with the thermometer within the sheath. The action of peeling the cover strips away tears away the selvage of the inner two strips outside the tear seal line and leaves the sheathed thermometer ready for use for taking the temperature of a patient. In the latest versions of the sheath, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,165,000 and 4,136,776, perforations are provided across the cover strips at the mouth of the sheath, so as to define tabs in the cover strips outside the mouth of the sheath. When the cover strips are peeled away, they are snapped from the tabs along the perforated lines to leave the tabs remaining as a handle to grasp and the sheathed thermometer.
The above-described thermometer sheath packages have proved to be very convenient to use and very effective for both glass thermometer and electronic thermometers which have probes in the general shape of a clinical glass thermometer. However a new type of electronic thermometer is now being marketed employing a short stubby tapering probe mounted on an enlarged handle, which contains the electronic circuitry and digital readout for the temperature reading. The above-described, previously developed sheath packages are not suitable for use on these new electronic themometers, because of their shape. It is important for the probe to be inserted all the way to the toe of the sheath, in order for the sheath to be worked properly, and in the previous sheath packages, the sheath is too long. In addition, the sheath of the prior sheath packages is too narrow at the top to accomodate the tapering probe. Moreover, the embodiment disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,136,776 cannot be used because in this embodiment, the two tab portions are joined together with side seals, which do not accomodate the enlarged handle portions of the stubby electronic thermometers. If the side seals are not provided in the tear tab portion, as is the case in the embodiment disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,000, the sheath can be modified to accomodate the stubby electronic thermometer by shortening the sheath and by flaring the sheath widely as the seal line of the sheath approaches the mouth. However, in this arrangement the tear tabs will flap loosely against the thermometer handle making them less convenient to use. In addition, the shortness of such a sheath with its wide tapering mouth would tend to make it fall easily from the thermometer. Moroever, the different thermometer sheaths have different perimeters and to accomodate all different embodiments, the mouth of the sheath should be made of a size so that some of the wider probes, upon being inserted fully into the sheath, strain the material of the sheath at the mouth slightly. This straining action will tend to cause the tabs to fall away from the sheath.